Description of Card Themes and Deck Archetypes (Cursed dice)

Below is a description of each option for the Cursed Dice Roll challenge's third dice roll regarding card themes!

Remember that you can also do a mixture of the following themes in various cases as some decks are exclusive to one category.

1 ~ Tempo or Aggro.

A tempo based deck focuses on consistently and frequently playing cards that give high value in the short term. This archetype focuses on outpacing other strategies through doing things like playing creatures with large bodies for their cost or using spells with high output for their cost. They typically use cards that are strong overall but may have synergies within their deck in addition!

An Aggro deck is similar to a tempo based deck, except they don't worry about getting the most value out of each of their cards. As such they focus on swarming the opponent with lower costed creatures and spells to try and win the game before the lacking value of their cards matter. A typical example of this is the deck Mono-Red Burn which focuses on having creatures and spells that deal small amounts of direct damage accumulated by playing your hand much faster than normal players. An Aggro deck typically runs out of things to do after the first few turns and has limited options for how to face the other player!

2 ~ Combo or Synergy.

A combo based deck is a very unique archetype. They're characterized by a selection of cards that when used to together provide a huge output compared to what cards normally can do on their own. As such they're often more concerned with attaining their combo pieces than attacking the other player head on. They rely generally on utility based cards to slow down the game until they collect all the parts of their combo. These decks vary widely from one another and allow the player of them to have new and unique experiences to keep the game feeling fresh!

Synergy based decks are similar to combo decks except they focus on one or more mechanics to provide more gradual value that outweighs the effect that individual pieces of their deck would have alone. The main difference between a synergy deck compared to a combo deck is that it doesn't rely on collecting as many pieces or specific pieces to be effective. Although this strategy generally focuses on winning during the mid to late game. As such they're weak to slower, more controlling decks!

3 ~ Control or Ramp.

Control based decks are focused on extending the game for longer periods of times in an attempt to make the other player run out of options. They generally use lots of counterspells, removal and utility themed cards to react to the other player. Alongside being more reactive they use cards to draw further cards from their deck and focus on having a few cards that delay the game so they can reach the point that they can play large threats. As such they rely on expanding their hand to improve their list of options and find the cards that are considered the primary threats in their deck. They're generally weak against aggressive decks as they require a period of time to get setup!

Ramp based decks are similar to control decks except they're more focused on generating large amounts of mana which they use to play large threats earlier than normally possible. They generally focus on attaining more sources of mana, such as through playing additional lands. In addition some decks of this nature may have cards that provide more mana in the short term. This type of deck relies on using cards to increase their mana pool and have the game last up to the point where they can consistently play large threats such as massive creatures and mass removal. This type of deck is also weak to aggressive decks and can be weaker to control decks.

4 ~ Tribal or Planeswalkers.

Tribal decks are in the simplest terms a hyper synergistic deck type that usually rely on playing cards that apply bonuses to their other cards. As such they are weak to removal cards and especially mass removal. These decks can vary heavily from one another and tend to have a sub-theme that is based around a creature type and/or type of spell. Most commonly known are the Human and Elf tribal decks as they demonstrate the most common elements of the deck type as well as have a lot of additional sub-themes to choose from!

Planeswalkers are more of a card type than a full deck theme as of the present. But are being further supported over the past few years. They focus on using activate-able abilities that provide lots of value if the Planeswalker can remain on the battlefield long enough. They generally are focused around protecting the Planeswalker from attacking creatures while reducing the amount of damage dealt to the player. The major payoff to this kind of strategy is that many planeswalkers have increasingly impactful abilities that can be accessed by using their weaker abilities. (For further explanation on how Planeswalkers work click here! - Link may be slow so be patient.)

5 ~ Tech or Sideboard.

Techable and sideboard-able are general ways of referring to a card that fulfills a specific purpose and is effective against certain decks rather than others. They exist to make the players' decks more even in effectiveness in recurring matches when playing for extended periods with the same decks. Tech cards are used to help the community more quickly change what decks are popular and/or most effective so that the game remains diverse.

Sideboard refers to cards that remain out of your deck until after your first match so that you may make choices on how to face your opponent in the next game. This allows players to change their plans to have a closer matchup to the other player's deck. This is more common in competitive groups than casual gameplay! (For an explanation on the sideboard watch the following video until you no longer have any questions Tutorial Video.)